Anyone who studies smear campaigns and "black" PR techniques used to discredit rivals has seen the trick of managing public mind-set by redefining terms. If you can start a wave of agreement going wherein people will accept that the word "hero" actually means "sucker for capitalist manipulation blinded by empty phrases into acting out his own psychotic side....", why then you can get anyone who was once called a hero knocked right out of the picture without attacking them directly. Clever stunt.

Thus, culturally, we gradually grew more and more convinced that the most important face of freedom was the right to choose among shampoos, ISPs and cable providers, colors of cars or preferences in cheaply done mass humor shows.

This was not, I think, the scope of the concept as it was felt to be when the amazing words linked to this thread were first written or spoken or thought or felt. I believe their meaning, when using the word, carried much wider horizons, and more sacred overtones than are even imagined today -- or so it often seems.

A

"___________________________________________

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.
We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.

~Albert Einstein